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CK2 Dev Diary #81 - Cleaning up the Map

Greetings!

The last few Dev Diaries have had you visit the Cartographer’s office to look at several reworked areas of the map - while there are more, we don’t want to show them all in a row, lest we risk you getting bored of them!

Today we will instead take a look at a minor free feature, an optional new Game Rule that might just help those of us that really can’t stand irregular borders! Like the map changes, this change will arrive in the free update that will accompany the next expansion. This feature is a pet project of mine, and an attempt to cure situations such as these:
Bordergore_example.png

As you can see in this example, Scotland holds a province in mainland Anatolia. There’s no logical way for them to control this territory - there’s no land connection, it’s not connected via ports, and it’s not part of their De Jure area.

The Game Rule is called ‘Exclave Independence', and aims to do just that - set exclaves independent. Being an optional Game Rule, it’s very modular, and is mainly intended as a tool for increasing immersion.
Exclave_GR.png


The Scotland example pictured previously is really the worst case scenario, and would be covered by any of the settings. As the ruler of Scotland dies, the game will try to identify any ‘exclaves’ and take appropriate action. If there are rulers whose land is completely situated in an exclave, they will be set independent, otherwise a peasant leader will seize control of the land. In this case the result will look like this:
Bordergore_cured.png


I can tell you that, if you’re like me, the difference playing with this Game Rule is like night and day. After a few hundred years you’ll no longer have a map that makes you want to claw your eyes out! As I mentioned earlier there are many different settings, and here is a full list of them:
Added the ‘Exclave Independence’ Game Rule, with the purpose of eliminating disconnected land on succession. As long as the new ruler during a succession isn’t at war, their exclaves should be set independent according to the setting. If the AI is at war during succession, they will try to remove exclaves once every year until such a time they are no longer at war (does not apply to Players). Settings:
  • Off - The default option, no removal.
  • Limited - Exclaves of Independent Rulers at peace will be removed on succession unless they are connected to the Capital area with gaps no larger than one County, via a naval path or part of the characters primary De Jure territory.
  • Limited (Naval) - Exclaves of Independent Rulers at peace will be removed on succession unless they are connected to the Capital area with gaps no larger than one County, via a limited naval path (1000 distance units) or part of the characters primary De Jure territory.
  • Significant - Exclaves of Independent Rulers at peace will be removed on succession unless they are connected via a naval path or part of the characters primary De Jure territory.
  • Harsh - Exclaves of Independent Rulers at peace will be removed on succession unless as they are connected via a limited naval path (1000 distance units) or part of the characters primary De Jure.
  • Total - Exclaves of Independent Rulers at peace will be removed on succession unless as they are connected via a limited naval path (1000 distance units). Disables Achievements.

To show a more tangible example, I loaded up an old save and added the Game Rule to it. It looked like this:
Exclave_ex2.png


After the death of the ruler of the Mongol Empire (the light blue spots) the result produced this:
Exclave_cure_mongol.png


And after the death of the King of Bengal:
Exclave_cure2.png

As you can see, the two Mongol provinces were overtaken by Peasant Leaders as they were much too far away from their steppe overlords. Bengals land, on the other hand, simply had the vassals declare independence, as they held no land in non-exclave land.

I hope this small feature will be of interest to some of you, in the next DD we will return to the cartographer's office with another exciting update!

Please note that the time between Dev Diaries will be irregular, as we’re still early in the development cycle.
 
We might be getting an announcement then. It has been more than 5 months since Jade Dragon.
Hahahahahahahaha. I seriously doubt that.  Considering how they keep saying they're early in development. And it's also 2 weeks to PDXcon.
 
18th century quote, thus irrelevant.


Habsburg empire is not a medieval phenomenon, thus also irrelevant.

Context matters.

Please leave those comments to the EU forums.
Thanks :cool:
if you get over nitpicking, his point is totally valid for CK2 time period. Hapsburgs got their Austrian lands in 1276 and their dominions had several exclaves. Luxemburger domains in Bohemia, Luxemburg, Brabant, Palatinate etc. all fall into CK2 period, the same goes for several French princely dynasties and many other German ones - all within CK2 basic timeline.
 
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I'm starting to think there might not be a dev diary today...
 
I'm starting to think there might not be a dev diary today...

As said... it's a bridge day. Yesterday was sunday and free. The 1th May is a public holiday in Sweden. Many people in Sweden have free today and some companies aren't even open.
 
As said... it's a bridge day. Yesterday was sunday and free. The 1th May is a public holiday in Sweden. Many people in Sweden have free today and some companies aren't even open.
1st of May is holiday in Czechia as well. So that probably means there won't be an EU4 one either,... F**k.
 
Speaking about a portraits. It would be even more cool if mechanism of mixing of characters be realized.
if Ethiopian meets Roman, a mulatto with traits of both nations is what we will get.
... sorry for racism...
allegedly the same is working for others
I believe it really could make a game more interesting for female market sector.
... sorry for sexism ..
La lux extinguido
 
Quite honestly it feels like this game is just neglected anymore compared to the other "active" titles. I get it doesn't make that much money, but I'm sure having more than a dev diary a month is possible. The next, and presumably last, update to the game seems like nothing but fixes, tweaks, and polishes. There are still alot of issues with the game that most likely never will be fixed (nomads, crusades, realm management/politics, etc). Because of these reasons, as well as my profession, CK2 looks like a terminal patient who you know is going to go soon, and all you're doing is easing the suffering with the meds you start them on.
 
Quite honestly it feels like this game is just neglected anymore compared to the other "active" titles. I get it doesn't make that much money, but I'm sure having more than a dev diary a month is possible. The next, and presumably last, update to the game seems like nothing but fixes, tweaks, and polishes. There are still alot of issues with the game that most likely never will be fixed (nomads, crusades, realm management/politics, etc). Because of these reasons, as well as my profession, CK2 looks like a terminal patient who you know is going to go soon, and all you're doing is easing the suffering with the meds you start them on.

They already confirmed there will be a large DLC about something a lot of people asked for.
 
Quite honestly it feels like this game is just neglected anymore compared to the other "active" titles. I get it doesn't make that much money, but I'm sure having more than a dev diary a month is possible. The next, and presumably last, update to the game seems like nothing but fixes, tweaks, and polishes. There are still alot of issues with the game that most likely never will be fixed (nomads, crusades, realm management/politics, etc). Because of these reasons, as well as my profession, CK2 looks like a terminal patient who you know is going to go soon, and all you're doing is easing the suffering with the meds you start them on.
I wouldn't be too harsh on them since CK2 was released in 2012 and that was 6 years ago, that's a long period of time for any game in which they published many DLC's for a limited market since not everyone likes strategy games. They are probably running out of ideas and maybe holding on to implementing some of the newer ones in CK3.
 
I wouldn't be too harsh on them since CK2 was released in 2012 and that was 6 years ago, that's a long period of time for any game in which they published many DLC's for a limited market since not everyone likes strategy games. They are probably running out of ideas and maybe holding on to implementing some of the newer ones in CK3.
I just wish they would wrap up this game. Honestly, I think it is time to say it is finished. Just do this one last dlc they are supposedly working on and let it be it. I love what they have done, and have been with the game since its release, but I think it needs to stop sometime, especially if they are running out of time, resources, and ideas.
 
I just wish they would wrap up this game. Honestly, I think it is time to say it is finished. Just do this one last dlc they are supposedly working on and let it be it. I love what they have done, and have been with the game since its release, but I think it needs to stop sometime, especially if they are running out of time, resources, and ideas.

But they are not running out of time (How? There is no time limit so they can't run out of time), resources (The time is as large as ever, nothing seems to be cutted, they did said the DLC is just large, that's the reason why it's take time) and ideas (they obviously have a lot of ideas, how do you think they are running out of it?)
 
But they are not running out of time (How? There is no time limit so they can't run out of time), resources (The time is as large as ever, nothing seems to be cutted, they did said the DLC is just large, that's the reason why it's take time) and ideas (they obviously have a lot of ideas, how do you think they are running out of it?)
Maybe resources in the sense of the RAM of the users? They cannot keep adding stuff indefinitely, or the low-end computers they originally allowed will no longer be able to handle it?
 
I just wish they would wrap up this game. Honestly, I think it is time to say it is finished. Just do this one last dlc they are supposedly working on and let it be it. I love what they have done, and have been with the game since its release, but I think it needs to stop sometime, especially if they are running out of time, resources, and ideas.
There are no reasons for that. I wouldn't mind having an update here and there until they announce CK3.
But they are not running out of time (How? There is no time limit so they can't run out of time), resources (The time is as large as ever, nothing seems to be cutted, they did said the DLC is just large, that's the reason why it's take time) and ideas (they obviously have a lot of ideas, how do you think they are running out of it?)
They might have some ideas but the question is are they worth implementing?
 
Seconding this, one of my biggest turnoffs is the byzantine blobbing into the north and east.

I think the game needs a stronger mechanic to make holding certain areas (deserts, mountains, and the steppes) more trouble than it's worth unless you are from that area (the nomadic and tribal governments were good attempts at this, but more could be done). If a realm from a more built up area wants to exert control over the area, they could conquer it; but it should be that the optimal arrangement, and the one the AI mainly goes for, is tributary status.